Vibrating bar or tone plate devices of the xylophone and glockenspiel types are widely known and employ tone-generating plates or bars of metal or wood. The tone plates are accurately tuned by sizing to produce different musical notes. The tone plates are held in free suspension over an acoustically resonant sound chamber and are played by being struck with mallets or hammers.
Handheld percussion musical instruments, such as handbells and hand chimes, incorporate the sounding chamber, tone generator, and striking element into one, handheld unit. Swinging the instrument by hand causes the striking element to impact the tone generator to produce a musical note. A plurality of the handheld instruments are often played by an ensemble of players forming a musical choir.
A limitation with the musical instruments of the aforementioned type is that they are extremely expensive and delicate instruments. They therefore are inappropriate, or because of their cost, unavailable for introducing children to and educating them in the musical arts. There is, therefore, a need for an inexpensive and durable handheld instrument of musical quality. A percussion instrument is particularly suitable, since it requires only minimal dexterity possessed by children.